# Columbo TV show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [January 27, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652 "2021-01-27T23:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/81 "2021-01-29T17:17:42Z")
That’s one of my favorite episodes. Robert Vaughn makes a great creepy murderer. Also, Patrick MacNee and Bernard Fox are in it too. And that nurse is hot, hot, hot! 🥰 I laugh now every time I hear Columbo say he’s looking for “powder burns” on one piece of evidence… He would have known the correct term is “gunshot residue.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/82 "2021-01-29T17:19:24Z")
I always watch the woman with the hat in that episode. 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/83 "2021-01-29T17:22:54Z")
Culp eventually played the father of a killer in a later Columbo episode, right? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/84 "2021-01-29T17:28:46Z")
“Columbo Goes to College” (1990). The son was played by Stephen Caffrey (“Lt Goldman” in _ **Tour** _ _ **of Duty** _). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/85 "2021-01-29T17:43:46Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Then the killer asked Columbo “when did you first suspect me?” > Columbo (matter-of-factly): when we first spoke. > Killer: (shocked) wha WHAAAAH? How can that be? > Columbo: you never asked how the victim was killed. I think my favorite bit from the series is when it _doesn’t_ work: a report comes in that a body has been found, and in his usual low-key fashion our hero asks the guy he’s talking with — you know, someone who could maybe wrap this whole thing up by explaining an odd detail a hapless schlub can’t make sense of — would please drive him over to the officers at the scene, what with Columbo not actually having a driveable car at the moment, you know how it is. And so they get in the businessman’s car; and Robert Culp off-handedly asks which way to turn out of the parking lot, prompting a _“beg pardon?”_ ”I couldn’t possibly know how to get there, could I?” — and he doesn’t keep the smirk out of his voice, and for a moment they both acknowledge that I Know That You Know That I Know. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/86 "2021-01-30T06:46:04Z")
I loved that show. For a while I had every episode on a VHS tape — until I threw out all my tapes. My favorite is “Negative Reaction” with Dick Van Dyke. It always seems that the murder was planned perfectly, yet Columbo proves it with a brilliant stroke at the very end. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/87 "2021-01-30T14:29:13Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > ”I couldn’t possibly know how to get there, could I?” — and he doesn’t keep the smirk out of his voice, and for a moment they both acknowledge that I Know That You Know That I Know. The same thing happens in “Now You See Him,” when Columbo has Jack Cassidy do his handcuff trick. That moment really is priceless! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/88 "2021-01-31T05:17:15Z")
Its weird. I grew up on that shit. Columbo, McMillan and Wife, Mccloud… But I just watched the youtube link that someone posted, and I cannot for the life of me remember Hec Ramsey. Nothing. As if scrubbed from my memory. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/89 "2021-01-31T20:10:39Z")
I wrote a FB post a couple of years ago extolling the Sunday Night mysteries, but concluded with “This was my favorite hour of TV every week, though I’m not sure if I ever watched an episode of Hec Ramsey.” Don’t remember it either. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/90 "2021-01-31T22:49:03Z")
There were only 10 episodes of _Hec Ramsey_, so it would have been quite easy to overlook. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/91 "2021-01-31T23:17:13Z")
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/92 "2021-02-02T01:35:41Z")
You are correct. “Dust of Death” was a short story. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652/93 "2021-02-02T01:43:48Z")
Looking at the plot description of “Dust of Death,” I can see how it could be confused with the novel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbo-tv-show/931652.md?page=4)